Slashdot videos: Now with more Slashdot!

View

Discuss

Share

We've improved Slashdot's video section; now you can view our video interviews, product close-ups and site visits with all the usual Slashdot options to comment, share, etc. No more walled garden! It's a work in progress -- we hope you'll check it out (Learn more about the recent updates).

coondoggie (973519) writes "How bad can cyberattacks get? How about burning the internal components of a machine, whether PC or Mac, to a crisp so there's no thought of it being recoverable? That's what security vendor CrowdStrike showed could be done to an Apple Mac OS X today at the RSA Conference. “We can actually set the machine on fire,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer at CrowdStrike...."Link to Original Source

Mac OS has supported multiple mouse buttons for at least 16 years. Even when using a now-extinct one button mouse, control-click presented a dialogue box.

Left window controls (yay for all the left handed and left eye dominant people, boo for the other 95% of the world)

Because it's easier to move a mouse up/left with your right hand, and was developed in a country that reads left-to-right.

Launchpad (how is the start menu missing causing a revolt and launchpad even exist? Launchpad is the initial SIN!)

The start menu missing is causing a revolt because Microsoft removed something and replaced it with an abomination. Launchpad - and other questionable features like Dashboard - can be completely ignored.

Finder layout straight out of system commander circa 1988.

Column view in Finder is optional, with icon and list view still available. Also, Finder has had its sorting options greatly improved throughout OS X's history.

Crap loads of docked icons you never use be default.

If you go and buy a Mac today, this is in the Dock:- Finder: File management- Launchpad: Access to all apps not in the Dock (And easily ignored, as previously discussed)- Safari: A web browser- Mail: Email client- Contacts: An address book- Calendar: A calendar- Notes: Short notes- Maps: A map of the entire planet- Messages: Text messaging and IM- FaceTime: Video chat- Photo Booth: Something fun to play with on your new computer- iPhoto: Something to talk to your camera- Pages: Word processing- Numbers: Spreadsheets- Keynote: Presentations- iTunes: Play and purchase music and TV/movies- iBooks: Read and purchase books- App Store: Install and purchase software- System Preferences: Change settings on your computer

The default Dock icons cover managing your computer, using the big two features of the Internet, syncing 'organisational' information with your phone, finding locations, messaging and video chatting with other people, photography, writing, processing numbers, creating presentations, watching media, reading, and installing an app to do anything else you want your computer to do. The default Dock is a slam-dunk for covering what the majority of people use computers for, points users in the right direction to add new capabilities to the computer, and is easily customised to remove the things you don't want. (Launchpad, again...)

The Dock is setup perfectly for you to get started with your computer. Anything else you need to get to can either be accessed through Spotlight (power users) or Launchpad (for people with more experience with iOS).

A separate contact and calendar app....

Just like iOS... but also NeXTSTEP; they have always been separate apps, which makes finding what are ultimately different tasks easier *and* they also seamlessly share the same databases behind the scenes.

General iOS crap

Integration with touchpads is great. Removing always-visible scrollbars removes needless clutter. Things like Launchpad - and pretty much anything else you don't like that reminds you of iOS - are easily disabled or ignored.

Hardwired application dependency locations (the whole point of application folders is to stop that!)

Wait, what? Apps install into/Applications by default, but the system works just fine with app in ~/Applications. Beyond that, moving apps around is making things needlessly complicated for yourself. Even then, the vast majority of apps are self-contained bundles and can be run from anywhere.

Scroll bars that disappear even if your mouse is near them and appear at the bottoms of pages OVERTOP content.

Touched on this in iOS; the scroll bars appear when moving the cursor or scrolling content. If you find this to be an issue, it can be disabled in System Preferences. Yes, Apple provided sensible options!

I could go on and complain about the apps, but lets say OSX is great for people who use a computer like they use iOS and leave it at that....

It's a mature system with 13 years of refinement, and is built for use on 'real' computers. iOS features have only gone "back to the Mac" since 10.7, and even then - as previously discussed - are all avoidable if found that unpalatable. OS X is also bundled with apps that over most use cases for a personal computer, and installing developer tools is simply a matter of typing 'Xcode' into the App Store.

OS X is the current gold standard in desktop operating systems. It's incredibly well thought out, and that's why Canonical, GNOME, and others keep looking to it for guidance. However, it was foolish for Ubuntu to unexpectedly drop application menus for global menus after nine years without presenting an option to switch back. And that's the difference between OS X and Ubuntu; Apple wouldn't make such a ridiculous and far-reaching change to the system without either an option to disable it or an incredibly good rationalisation.

SmartAboutThings (1951032) writes "Microsoft has been hunting for a new CEO ever since it has been announced that Steve Ballmer would step down from the position that he held for more than 13 years. Back in August 23, Microsoft said that Ballmer would resign within 12 months and that moment has come today as Microsoft’s Board of Directors has appointed Satya Nadella as the Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors. Nadella had previously worked as the Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group. Also, Bill Gates, the iconic Microsoft Founder will be supporting Nadella in shaping new technology and products as John Thompson, a lead independent director for the Board of Directors, will take over the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors that Gates held."

From releasing a unified architecture browser including Linux support since 2001, Opera decided to put Linux development on indefinite hold, communicated through blogcomments, and focus on Windows and Mac for their browser rewrite centered around the Blink engine that had its first beta release last spring. The promise to bring back the Linux version in due time was met with growing skepsis as the months went by, and clear answers have been avoided in the developer blog. The uncertainty has spawned user projects such as Otter browser in an attempt to recreate the Opera UI in a free application.

Tolfsen's statement seem to be in line with what users have suspected all along: Opera for Linux is not something for the near future."Link to Original Source

Rydia (556444) writes "Since it first released, I have been in love with my Nokia N900, and it has satisfied all my needs for a mobile with a high degree of control and utility. Sadly, the little guy is showing his age, both in battery life (even with the powersaving kernel options enabled), and performing in general has been left far, far in the dust by phones that are now considered quite old. The time has come to find its successor, but after a thorough search of smartphone options, I can't find any handset that offers everything for the power user that the N900 did (much less a hardware keyboard). I'd like to avoid supporting Google/Android, but there don't seem to be many options. Have any other techies found a replacement for their N900?"

dotarray (1747900) writes "Nintendo has celebrated a record-breaking year of handhelds, reporting that more than 16 million 3DS games were sold in 2013 — around 5 million more than were sold in 2012, bringing the worldwide lifetime total to more than 122 million."Link to Original Source

Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "ABC News reports that a Massachusetts man has been jailed for sending his ex-girlfriend an email invitation to join Google+. But Thomas Gagnon, who has a restraining order against him, contends he didn't send it; Google did, without his knowledge or consent. When his ex-girlfriend received the invitation, according to the Salem News, she went to the police, complaining Gagnon had violated the restraining order by sending her the email. Police agreed and arrested him, the News reported. He was jailed then released on $500 bail. Gagnon’s attorney says his client has no idea how the woman he once planned to marry — popping the question with a $4,000 ring earlier this month — got such an invitation, suggesting that it's entirely possible Gagnon is telling the truth — that he did not intentionally or knowingly send the invitation. "If he didn't send it — if Google sent it without his permission and he was jailed for it — Google could be facing major liability." Shear pointed out a Google product forum from 2011 and 2012 titled "Prevent automatic email invitations to Google+?" that contains a number of angry complaints by Google+ users about the automatic invitation feature. In response these complaints, a Google Community Manager calling herself "Natalie" responded: "Thanks for your feedback. Right now the emails that go out alert people of your activity on Google+, and more importantly the sharing of content with them. We send them an email when they aren't yet on Google+ so they know that you are out there in the world [of] G+. They should only incur this email once." Shear noted: "Google is going through every one of your contacts and sending them an invitation, whether it's your doctor, your lawyer, your mistress, or your ex-fiancee who's got a restraining order against you." He called this, "a perfect example of what happens when a company oversteps its bounds.""

retroworks (652802) writes "Several news outlets, CBS, Verge, Engadget, National Geographic, MarketWatch, etc. report on Intel's announcement that the chips it produces will avoid purchases of rare earth minerals and metals, such as tantalum, sourced from high conflict areas such as Congo basin. Will recycled content follow? Will manufacturers begin stating the percentage of their boards which are made from recycled boards, like recycled paper greeting cards, closing the loop on the environmental conflict-mine-to-ewaste chain? Or is another De Caprio "Blood Diamonds" film in our future?

EzInKy (115248) writes "I'm sure most of you have checked it out, and am just as sure most of you don't like what they are plan to force upon us. So my question is, where do you plan on getting your Slashdot fix once the beta becomes the default? I know I'm trying to learn CSS so I can undo the damage they are inflicting."

somegeekynick (1011759) writes "Feedly users, a lot of whom migrated from the now-defunct Google Reader, are now finding out that they will not be able to login to the service without a Google+ Profile. In a blog post from Edwin Khodabakchian, which was posted almost at the same time the change rolled out, the reason for the change is stated as following Google's own move from using OAuth to Google+ for authentication. What has riled up a lot of users, as can be read in the comments, is that this change has come without warning and a lot of feeds are now being "held hostage" by Feedly, especially for users who are reluctant to create Google+ Profiles."

Trailrunner7 (1100399) writes "In a new report detailing the number and kind of requests for user information it’s gotten from various governments, Apple said it has never received a request for information under Section 215 of the USA PATROT Act and would likely fight one if it ever came. The company also disclosed that it has received between 1,000 and 2,000 requests for user data from the United States government since January, but it’s not clear how many of those requests it complied with because of the restrictions the U.S. government places on how companies can report this data.

Right now, companies such as Apple, Google and others that issue so-called transparency reports only are allowed to report the volume of requests they get in increments of 1,000. So Apple’s report shows that although it received 1,000-2,000 requests for user data so far in 2013, the number that it complied with is listed as 0-1,000. Apple, along with a number of other companies, including Google and Microsoft, have asked the government in recent months for permission to disclose more specific numbers of requests, including specific numbers of National Security Letters."

MarkWhittington (1084047) writes "The recent launch of India's first mission to Mars has ignited a debate in that country that has parallels of a debate that was once raging in the United States. The question arises, why does a country with a severe poverty problem have a space program?

The Economist points out that India's space program, of which the Mars mission is a small part, costs about $1 billion a year. It claims that spending on things like public health in that country is "abysmally low."

On the other hand, most of India's space program is directed toward communications and other satellites that have a direct benefit to its people.

The BBC adds that the inspirational and national prestige aspects of the Mars mission are not to be sneezed at. India has a growing middle class, technically trained, and a good space program is part of a mix of policies that encouraged that development."Link to Original Source